


Hurts Like Hell

by gaycatra



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Catra (She-Ra) Redemption, F/F, Healing, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lots of Angst, Recovery, bow and scorpia are pure, catra is gay and angery, let catra say fuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 07:12:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17178296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaycatra/pseuds/gaycatra
Summary: Catra is distraught after losing against She-Ra in the Battle of Bright Moon, so she decides to confront Adora once and for all. Gay shenanigans ensue.





	Hurts Like Hell

Ouch.

Catra stood in front of a mirror in the Fright Zone bathroom, dabbing antiseptic onto the small cut at the bottom of her chin. It stung, but not as much as her limbs ached with exhaustion.

She had fought hard that day. She had almost beaten Adora, even. Almost beaten _She-Ra_. Despite the crushing defeat, Catra was still a little bit proud of the fact that she had thoroughly beat the shit out of Adora even with her magic sword and super strength.

Beyond that, Hordak had just promoted her to second in command. And she had finally beaten Shadow Weaver, both literally and figuratively. She was on top of the world.

And yet she didn’t feel that way.

She didn’t know how she felt. Angry, definitely, but that was an emotion she had become accustomed to feeling most of the time, especially since Adora left. Catra mostly felt a strange emotion that she could not quite name, a feeling that sunk to the bottom of her gut like a rock. It felt somewhat like restlessness mixed with embarrassment, anxiety, and annoyance. She stared into the mirror, pulling her finger along the dark bags that had formed under her eyes at some point that day.

At that moment, a loud sound shook her out of her thoughts. A booming voice echoed into the room as the door crashed open.

“Catra, it’s time for dinner! Entrapta and I made spaghetti and I know you’ve never had it because the Horde never makes you anything good to eat.” Scorpia looked cheerful as ever. Catra wondered if she felt the same weird emotion she was feeling. Especially after the little purple glitter princess kicked her fifty feet across the bay.

Scorpia noticed Catra’s cuts, and her cheerful expression turned to one of worry. “Are you okay? Do you need help patching up?”

Catra slapped a bandage over her chin. “I’m FINE,” she grumbled. She turned to Scorpia. “What  about you? I saw you get your ass kicked too.”

Scorpia’s enormous laugh echoed through the room. “Are you kidding? I’m fine. I’m pretty tough, if you haven’t noticed.” She knocked a claw over her hard chest, and it sounded like knocking a wooden door.

“Alright. We can eat together, I guess,” Catra ran her hands through her hair, as if composing herself. “But I’m not eating any of that ‘spaggy’ crap.”

“IT’S CALLED ‘SPAGHETTI,’ and it’s DELICIOUS!” Scorpia’s exit was as loud as her entrance.

Catra took one last look in the mirror. Although she still didn’t know what was going on in her own head, she knew one thing for certain: she was going to find Adora again even if she had to hunt her down.

* * *

In truth, Catra did think the spaghetti was pretty good, even if she would never admit that to Scorpia or the captive princess.

The next morning, Catra woke early and snuck out of the Fright Zone. She was heading to the First Ones’ castle in the Whispering Woods, which was even easier to find now that the forest had been basically decimated by the power of the Black Garnet. She knew Adora would be there, retreating from the battle to lick her wounds and train.

Catra quickly pushed the idea of “licking Adora’s wounds” out of her mind.

Even though she didn’t have any plan of action, Catra knew she needed to see Adora again. She didn’t know if she was going to confront her, or fight her, or talk to her, or just watch her from afar. She had gotten used to flying by on instinct alone, and hey, it had gotten her all the way to second in command.

Sure enough, about twenty minutes after she perched herself in a tree outside the castle, Adora came galloping up on a horse. Specifically, a unicorn-pegasus-hybrid horse with rainbow wings.

 _Leave it to Adora to find the most extra horse on the planet_ , Catra thought bitterly.

She slipped nimbly into the castle just as the door was about to close.

She spent a while watching Adora practice fighting simulated holograms, eventually getting restless and transforming into She-Ra to fight harder. Catra made a mental note that if Adora’s stamina was running out, she had to remember to keep her away from the sword so she couldn’t refresh herself with She-Ra’s magic.

As Adora continued to cut down the holograms, which couldn’t seem to figure out that she favored her right side and didn’t always remember to cover her legs, Catra devised a devious plot to embarrass and upstage Adora once and for all.

Or, more realistically, to annoy her for a few minutes before running away.

Adora swiped at three holograms with the sword, and they all dematerialized instantly. Her forehead glistened with sweat. Catra crept closer, keeping in the shadows, and timed her attack.

Just as Adora eliminated the last hologram and let out some of the tension in her muscles, Catra quickly jabbed at the back of her knees with her heels, causing Adora to buckle to the ground and shout in surprise.

“Hey, Adora,” Catra crouched over Adora, who lay on the floor, blinking in surprise and trying to recover from the attack.

“Damn it, Catra, what are you doing here again?” She kicked Catra away, who leapt back and landed on her feet. Adora stood and sheathed her sword.

“I’m not going to fight you.” She morphed back into the regular Adora, something that Catra still thought was super weird.

“Who says I’m here to fight?” Catra cocked her head and put a hand on her hip.

“Um, I don’t know, maybe the fact that we both just tried to kill each other yesterday?” Catra loved the annoyed tone Adora always took on when she couldn’t predict what Catra was going to do next. “You’re not even healed yet.” She gestured to the cut on Catra’s chin, which Catra had left exposed so Adora wouldn’t tease her for wearing a goofy bandage.

“Yeah, well, neither are you,” the scratch marks on Adora’s face had healed the day before because of She-Ra’s magic, but Adora still looked extremely tired and restless. “I’m not going to attack you. Not again, anyways,” she smirked, and felt a warm burst of pride in her chest when she remembered taking Adora down.

“Well then, what do you want? I hope you remembered the way out this time, because I’m not doing that memory thing again.” Adora straightened her shirt anxiously.

Catra shuddered. “Don’t worry, I know how to get out now.” A silence fell over them, which was only broken by the soft hum of the machinery.

It was only then that Catra remembered that they hadn’t turned off the training simulation.

“Adora—!” Catra shoved her to the side and blocked a punch from a hologram. She cursed herself for falling for her own trap. She shouldn’t have let her guard down in enemy territory. She sliced her claws across the holograms stomach and it disappeared instantly.

A group of holograms had them surrounded, forcing Catra and Adora closer together as they advanced on them until they were back to back.

“You wanna have some fun? You take that half, I’ll take this one.” Adora’s tone was strangely calm for someone messing with First Ones’ tech that she didn’t really understand yet. Catra wondered if her confidence came from having She-Ra to fall back on.

Catra attacked the holograms instead of responding. She was too pissed off to think of something witty to say.

It only took them a few minutes to defeat the hologram group, but more kept appearing after that. They fought on, vanquishing hologram after hologram. About ten minutes in, Adora shouted, “End simulation!” and the holograms all disappeared.

“You’re already tired? You must be out of shape now that you’re so busy managing your little princess club.” Catra cracked her knuckles. She had been a little winded, but she could’ve fought for much longer.

“Excuse me? I was training for hours before this!”

“You trained for, like, twenty minutes before this. I’ve been here this whole time.” Catra grinned, even though she internally kicked herself for admitting she had been creepily watching Adora this entire time.

“Shut up,” Adora laughed, seemingly unfazed that Catra was watching her. “It’s kinda weird to fight without the sword nowadays.”

Catra internally kicked herself again for feeling proud that she made Adora laugh. She coughed awkwardly. Silence fell over them again.

After a few moments Adora spoke. “So, um… what now?”

Catra sighed. “I don’t know, Adora. You tell me.” She sat down against the cold crystal wall. She thought this could be a good opportunity to pry out some intel from Adora about the Rebellion.

Deep down, though, she knew that wasn’t what this was.

Adora sat down a few feet beside her. “I mean, you came to me. So you must have a reason to be here.”

Catra felt a spark of that weird feeling from yesterday. It spread through her entire body. She felt her cheeks get hot.

“You really didn’t know how I felt?” Catra blurted. She knew she would regret this display of vulnerability later, but then again, she already accepted that going off instinct was her new way of life. “When we were kids. You didn’t know that you were Shadow Weaver’s favorite?”

“Catra, I—“ Adora seemed like she had a lot to say, but no words came out of her mouth. She sighed. “Of course I knew.”

Catra grit her teeth. “Then why didn’t you do anything about it?”

“I tried, Catra!” Adora’s voice was strained with emotion. “You _know_ I tried. I was always trying to protect you. You _know_ that.”

Catra wouldn’t meet Adora’s gaze. “Yeah, yeah. You told me this before. You were ‘protecting me,’” she mocked Adora’s words from their previous fight. “But nothing you did to ‘protect me’ ever changed anything. You know what Shadow Weaver did to me.” Catra fought to keep her head held high. She still sometimes shivered thinking about the punishments she used to receive from Shadow Weaver.

 _That’s all in the past now, she can’t hurt me like that again,_ Catra reminded herself.

She stole a glance at Adora. Her face was distorted with guilt as she stared up at the crystal ceiling.

“I know,” Adora’s voice shook. “I know, Catra. And I’m so sorry. I am.” Catra looked away when she saw Adora turn back to her. “I know what she did. And I know I did nothing to stop it.”

Catra was beginning to wonder if Adora would ever understand that she didn’t want an apology. Catra was no sob story. Of course she still hurt. But she wasn’t a child anymore. She didn’t need Adora’s fumbled apology to feel okay.

_Then why am I here?_

“I was so scared, Catra. You were scared too. I didn’t know what to do. I was just a kid. I didn’t know—“ Adora may have been tearing up, but Catra still refused to look at her.

“I know, I know. You didn’t know. You didn’t know what to do, or what was going on. Fine.” Catra cracked the knuckles in her hands idly. “I’ve heard all this from you before.”

“Then you know why I can’t come back to the Hoard. Even if you don’t want me to.” Adora seemed to have gained back some composure. “But just hear me out, okay?”

“I’m listening.” She rubbed at her claws, looking for something to do besides look at Adora.

“If you come back with me—“

“This again?”

“Just _listen_ , Catra. If you come back with me, no one will ever treat you like that again.” Catra felt a wave of shame roll over her. “I won’t let them. This time I’ll make it right.”

“You just don’t fucking understand, do you, Adora?” She scraped her claws across the floor beside her in anger. “I don’t _want_ your protection! I don’t need you to protect me! You weren’t there for me then and you certainly aren’t here for me now!” She finally looked over at Adora, and felt her stomach flip when she saw her tear-streaked face.

“Do you know how pathetic that would be? Giving up everything I worked for just to get you to protect me again? I don’t care if the Horde destroys this entire planet and everything in it. I would rather go down with this ship than give you the satisfaction of _saving_ me!” Catra felt a little voice in the back of her head begging her to stop giving information to the enemy, but at this point she was too angry to listen to it.

“Catra, no. I know you don’t need my help. I know that. I just want things to be like they were. I want us to be together again. I _miss_ you.” Catra’s blood was boiling.

“What part of ‘I don’t need you’ don’t you fucking understand? Things aren’t ever going back, Adora. I’m never letting you or Shadow Weaver or anyone else have that kind of power over me ever again!”

“Catra, that’s _not_ what I meant and you know it,” Adora shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t know what you want from me, Catra. Obviously nothing I do is going to change your mind, but you keep finding me like this anyway.”

Catra stood and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I want you to understand that what you did to me was wrong. And I want you to stop coming up with excuses for why you did it.”

Catra ran back to the corridor she entered through, not waiting for Adora to give a response. She dragged her claws along the walls as she ran just to make scratches that Adora would have to see when she left later.

When she finally got back to the Fright Zone, she stormed right by Scorpia and Entrapta, ignoring Scorpia’s cry of protest when she didn’t respond to her greeting. She slammed open the bathroom door, locking it behind her this time.

She stared into the mirror once again, panting from the effort of running all the way back to the Fright Zone. She breathed deeply and let herself calm down.

She choked out a miserable laugh when she realized the weird feeling was gone.

* * *

Adora felt like shit.

Emotional, physical, spiritual, whatever—all shit.

She didn’t know why she kept hurting Catra. She wasn’t trying to. She was actually trying extremely hard _not_ to.

And yet, here she was.

Swift Wind had flown her back to the castle. He asked her what was wrong, but she just shrugged it off and said she was tired from all the training.

She ran into Glimmer and Bow in the hallway as she was trudging down to her room. They immediately noticed something was up.

“You okay, Adora?” Glimmer touched her arm as if to make sure she was still all there.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she lied. “Just overworked myself is all.”

Bow looked concerned, but said nothing.

“…Okay. Well, tell me if you need anything. An ice pack, or some snacks, or a cold drink, or…” she trailed off. Bow ushered her away, assuring Glimmer that Adora just needed to rest right now.

Adora practically collapsed onto her bed. She sighed deeply into her pillow. Closing her eyes and trying to think about anything besides Catra.

A few minutes later, she heard the door open gently. She raised her head and saw Bow enter sheepishly.

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. But I just want you to know that you can tell me about anything that’s bothering you. Really.”

“Bow…” she was about to politely ask him to leave before she realized that there was no reason for her to hide this from him anymore. “I saw Catra today.”

“What? Did she hurt you?” Bow sat on the edge of her bed.

“No, I’m fine,” Adora sat up. “We just… talked. Or more like argued.” She explained what happened to Bow.

“In the Horde, I was always Shadow Weaver’s favorite cadet. And I knew that. I knew I got special treatment over the other kids. Especially Catra,” she gulped. “But Catra is right. I never did anything about it. I said I was always protecting her, but I _wasn’t_. I let Shadow Weaver…” Tears glossed over her eyes, blurring her vision momentarily.

“Adora, you were a child. You were both children. You can’t blame yourself for what Shadow Weaver did to you two.” Bow took her hand. “You aren’t powerless to the Horde anymore. You whooped their butts yesterday! Even if you couldn’t stop them then, you can now.”

She wiped her eyes sheepishly. “Thanks, Bow,” He handed her a tissue, which she gratefully took. “But I don’t know what to do. Catra won’t listen to me. I don’t want to fight her anymore.”

“Well, maybe an apology isn’t what she wants. From what you told me, it doesn’t seem like Catra has a reason to be with the Horde except to get revenge on you.”

“Gee, thanks.” Adora blew into the tissue loudly.

“Sorry, but it’s true,” Bow replied. “I think Catra just wants to be taken seriously. That’s why she’s trying so hard to rise in the ranks at the Horde. She wants someone to validate her and tell her she’s capable.”

“You know, you might be right,” Adora tossed the tissue into the trash bin on the other side of the room, but missed and had to go pick it up and throw it away. Bow snorted quietly, but stifled his laughter so as to not make Adora feel worse than she already did. “Maybe we just need to show Catra that we’re more appreciative of her here than the Horde is.”

“Adora, are you sure you want to do this? Try and get Catra to defect from the Horde?” Bow said. “I know she was your best friend, but she’s really dangerous. I don’t want you to hurt yourself trying to get rid of your guilt.”

“She still _is_ my best friend. I am She-Ra. I’m not going to let her go that easily.” Adora stood up, renewed with confidence. “And besides, she’s really an incredible fighter, and she knows the Horde better than I do at this point. With her help, we could defeat the Horde once and for all.”

Bow stood and grinned. “Alrighty then. Operation Redeem Catra is a go!”

* * *

Catra stood behind Entrapta, who was eagerly assembling a small gun out of metal scraps.

“Have you created the weapon yet?”

Entrapta swung around as soon as Catra spoke, slapping her in the face with her ponytail in the process. “Yes! I’ve been hard at work all day on this baby,” she lifted the gun and gave it a small kiss.

“So what does it do?”

“Well, you see, this gun produces a projectile of hypersonic photons that can sear or destroy the surface of—“

“In _English_.” Catra grunted.

“It shoots lasers.”

“A laser gun? We already have those! That’s useless!” Catra considered smashing the gun, but restrained herself.  She didn’t want the princess to get too discouraged and stop working.

“Well, yes, this is nothing new. But I built it entirely with replica First Ones’ tech. I’m finally starting to understand how it works!” She aimed the gun at a target set up across the room and fired, blasting a white beam through its center.

“Calm down, Catra,” Scorpia placed a large clawed hand on Catra’s shoulder. “She’s doing her best.”

Catra pushed Scorpia’s claw away. “Yeah, whatever. Just get back to work.” Entrapta nodded enthusiastically and slipped her protective goggles back on.

Scorpia nudged Catra lightly. “You shouldn’t be so hard on her. You’re starting to sound like Shadow Weaver.” Catra grimaced.

“Whatever! Just leave me alone.” Catra whipped her tail back and forth in frustration.

“What’s up with you lately? You came storming in the other day without a word to me or Entrapta, and now you won’t eat with us or even talk. What happened? Did I do something wrong?”

Catra wanted to scream at her, but she stopped herself. She wasn’t going to take her anger out on someone who didn’t actually deserve it, and as much as Scorpia annoyed her, she was at least relatively helpful. She wasn’t going to be like Shadow Weaver.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Catra sighed and tried to relax. She hadn’t noticed the hairs on the back of her neck were raised. She smoothed them down and composed herself.

“I fought with Adora again.”

“You mean at the battle? Because that was—“

“Not at the battle,” Catra interrupted. “I followed her to the crystal castle in the Whispering Woods to try and get some information out of her, but I just… got pissed off and started yelling at her instead.”

“You seem to do that a lot!” Scorpia grinned.

“Shut up.” Catra growled. “I’m being emotionally vulnerable here!”

“Oh, right, sorry! Continue.” Scorpia leaned forward excitedly. Catra glanced toward Entrapta, but she seemed much too focused on soldering a small microchip to be listening.

“Anyways… I yelled at her. And I probably said things I shouldn’t have admitted to her.” She gulped. “And I’m pissed. I mean, I was pissed before, but I’m even more pissed now.”

“I see. So you didn’t kiss and make up, then.” Scorpia stroked her chin with a claw thoughtfully.

“No, we didn’t,” Catra ignored how warm she felt when she thought about kissing Adora. She had to get over that crush someday. “I don’t know if we ever will.”

“Well, that sucks. But hey, she is our enemy now, so maybe it’s for the best,” Scorpia tried to affectionately pat her on the back, but overestimated the amount of force she needed to use, so she really ended up punching Catra’s shoulder blades. “Besides, there’s plenty of pretty girls in the Horde.”

“What?”

“You heard me. You’ll find a new girlfriend soon enough, you’re a total stud!” Scorpia wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “I say we bust out the tux again and get a speed dating ring going.”

Catra’s head was swimming. “Scorpia, I’m not dating Adora. That’s so… not a thing.”

“Oh.” Scorpia looked a little disappointed. “I thought, because of the whole prom thing…with the sexually tense dancing and all…well, never mind.”

Catra’s face fell into her hand. As if she didn’t already feel like an idiot, now she had people assuming she and Adora were a couple? That couldn’t have been further from the truth.

In reality, there was a time when Catra wanted nothing more than to be Adora’s girlfriend. They were inseparable; Catra followed Adora everywhere, through anything. Catra would take Adora’s hand, and Adora would just giggle like it was the funniest thing in the world. Catra had even taken to sleeping at the bottom of Adora’s bed because she wanted to be closer to her. She longed so badly to crawl up under the sheets, to entangle their fingers and legs, to kiss her and run her fingers through her hair—

Catra shook those thoughts away. Catra had long since realized that Adora would never feel that way about her. Adora just saw her as a friend. Maybe even less than that, given the things she saw Shadow Weaver do to her. Catra had been trying to shake off the remnants of her crush on Adora for over a year, and Adora leaving was just the nail in the coffin.

“Hey,” Scorpia’s voice snapped her out of her train of thought. “It’s all going to be okay. We’ll make some really big weapons and we’ll beat She-Ra once and for all.” Scorpia beamed at her.

“Yeah,” Catra forced a small smile. “Okay. Thanks, Scorpia.”

“Anytime, my friend!” Scorpia tried once more to pat her on the back, but this time she accidentally knocked her over, which resulted in Catra finally admitting defeat for the day and retreating into the dormitory to take a much-needed nap.

* * *

Adora sat in a peaceful grassy meadow, staring up at the clouds as they floated by. She was warm and comfortable, and her limbs weren’t aching from exhaustion for once. She sighed and leaned back, supporting herself on her palms.

“Doesn’t that one kind of look like Glimmer’s hair?” a smooth, familiar voice beside her asked. Adora turned to her left and saw Catra reclining in the grass, pointing to a distant cloud that, upon inspection, did look a bit like Glimmer’s hair.

Adora giggled. She turned back to Catra and started playing with her long brown hair, twirling it in her fingers. She hummed happily.

“And that one looks like you,” Adora said lazily, pointing to a blob of a cloud with a small, skinny trail of clouds jutting out of it. “There’s your tail.”

“That’s more like a rock with a stick on it.” Catra rolled over to face away from Adora.

Adora took this as an opportunity to lace her fingers through Catra’s fluffy mane of hair. It was soft and silky, and her fingers glided through as though it were water.

She moved her hands up to the top of Catra’s head and started petting her. Catra never usually let her pet her; she was always too embarrassed to admit how feline she really was. Adora lay down next to Catra, feeling slightly sleepy. Adora scratched the back of Catra’s ear and she heard her purr softly.

“See? You like being pet!” Adora giggled again.

Catra smiled. “I like a lot of things I’ve never let you try.” She rolled back over and suddenly they were face to face, noses only a few inches apart. Adora felt Catra’s hot breath dust across her lips.

“Woah,” Adora grinned. “Whaaaaat is happening right now?” She laughed nervously, and Catra just continued to smile. Catra leaned in closer and closed her eyes. Their lips touched together softly, and Adora’s eyes dripped closed. She breathed in deeply through her nose, Catra’s familiar musky-but-also-floral scent filling her senses.

And then she woke up, covered in drool and cuddling her pillow sensuously.

* * *

Bow was tired. Very tired. He had just helped Adora explain to Glimmer, Queen Angella, and the princesses why they should put effort into getting Catra to defect from the Horde. It took a good hour and half of arguing, but they finally had everyone mostly convinced. After eating a quick dinner and taking a shower, he wanted nothing more than to go to sleep and recharge.

So he was not thrilled when Adora burst into his room at 3 am.

“BOW!” Adora whisper-shouted, even though the door being swung open had already woken him.

“Adora…no…sleep now…”

“Bow, this is an EMERGENCY.”

Bow opened his eyes just enough to make out Adora’s shape in the dim lighting.

“A real emergency?”

“Yes. Well, sort of. We’re not being attacked.” She sat at the edge of his bed. “Please talk to me.”

Bow sighed. Sometimes he hated being such a good friend (not really, though). He sat up and flicked on the lamp next to his bed. “What happened?”

“IhadadreamthatmeandCatrakissedandIdon’tknowwhattodoIfeelsoweirdwhatdoIdoIdon’t—“

“Adora.” Bow groaned. “Please.”

Adora took a deep breath. “Sorry.” She swallowed loudly. “I had a dream that I kissed Catra.”

Bow stared at her. “Ok.”

“And I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Ok.”

“Because I don’t have those feelings for her. Or I think I don’t. I guess I’ve never really thought about it like that.”

“…Ok.”

“Please say something other than ‘ok.’”

“Sorry. I’m still processing all this,” Bow wiped his eyes and removed his cartoonish sleeping cap. “So you had a dream that you were kissing your friend that you didn’t think you liked that way and now you feel weird.”

“Yeah, basically.” Adora pulled her collar nervously. “My friend who is now evil and wants to kill me.”

“You don’t know that.”  Bow placed his hand on her shoulder affectionately.

“Either way, she certainly doesn’t like me like that.” Adora replied.

“You don’t know that either. You guys seemed pretty into each other at the prom. I know you were fighting and everything, but there was definitely something going on there.” Bow’s voice was hoarse with sleepiness.

“Okay, yeah, that was a bit…close. And weird for platonic friends-turned-enemies to do.” Adora bit her lip.

“Are you sure you don’t just miss her friendship? I mean, you grew up together. You’re basically sisters.” Bow pointed out.

Adora shuddered. “It would be easier if you didn’t call the girl I dreamt about kissing my sister.”

Bow started. “Right, sorry. But you see what I mean. Maybe you just miss what you had before.”

“But I don’t want it to be like it was before.” Adora remembered the nights when Catra would come in late from a particularly nasty punishment from Shadow Weaver, and would curl up at the bottom of her bed. She had always thought that Catra had only come to her out of fear, not out of genuine affection. “Our relationship was…not balanced. She had _no_ power at the Horde. Shadow Weaver literally only kept her alive because she knew I liked her and she wanted me to be happy.” Adora shook her head sadly. “I want us to be…I want our relationship to be different. I want her to like me for me, and not because I’m the only thing standing between her and Shadow Weaver.”

“Well, there you go.” Bow looked satisfied.

“What? What do you mean?”

“You just solved your own problem. You want your relationship with Catra to be different, probably based on trust and mutual respect.” He folded his hands thoughtfully. “Maybe that means you want your new relationship to build into something more.”

Adora pursed her lips. She knew he was probably right, but she was afraid to admit it to herself. “Thank you, Bow.” She leaned in to give him a hug, and he patted her on the back weakly.

“Alright. Love you too. Can I go back to sleep now?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Goodnight, Bow!” She flicked off the lamp and headed for the door.

“Goodnight, sleep tight, dream of Catra tonight.” Bow snickered quietly.

“I _heard_ that!”

* * *

Needless to say, Adora spent the next few days soul-searching. To Adora, “soul-searching” meant training harder than ever and setting up several strategic diagrams to understand her feelings.

Glimmer was beginning to worry about Adora. She had been acting strangely ever since she had convinced the princess alliance to turn their efforts towards convincing Catra to defect or become a spy for the Rebellion. Bow had been brushing off her concerns about Adora, saying she just had a lot on her mind lately.

Glimmer and Bow entered Adora’s room one afternoon, looking to see what she was doing. When she wasn’t out training in the crystal castle, she was holed up in here.

“Um, hi, Adora,” Glimmer said nervously, eyeing the table covered in what appeared to be a model war simulation. There were several small items strewn about on the table, such as a lipstick tube, a hairbrush, a perfume bottle, and other miscellaneous things that Adora presumably rummaged from her bathroom. Small multicolored strings and bits of paper with random words on them interconnected the objects.

“Hi, Glimmer. Hi, Bow,” Adora didn’t take her eyes off the small perfume bottle and hairbrush. She switched out the brush for the lipstick, and then switched the lipstick for a roll of toilet paper.

“Um…you okay in here?” Glimmer moved to pick up the perfume bottle, and Adora slapped her hand away. “Hey!” Glimmer rubbed her hand, even though it didn’t really hurt.

“Sorry, Glimmer. I’ve been working on this for a long time,” Adora switched the toilet paper and the lipstick again. “I finally figured it out!”

“So you have a plan to redeem Catra?” Bow leaned in, intrigued.

“What? No. This is a physical simulation of my emotions.” She pointed to the perfume bottle. “This is Catra,” she pointed to the lipstick, “This is the current me,” she pointed to the hairbrush, “And that’s me before I left the Horde.”

“Who’s the toilet paper roll?” Glimmer looked confused and slightly scared. It was just like Adora to approach her emotions as if they were a battle to be won.

“That’s me in the future, after the Horde is defeated,” Glimmer was starting to wonder if the power of She-Ra had infected Adora’s mind and made her go insane.

“Why would future you be toilet paper? That’s gross.” Glimmer grimaced. Adora ignored her.

“I believe I understand how I feel about Catra now.”

Bow raised an eyebrow. “So…what have you…concluded?” He said, trying not to reveal anything to Glimmer. He didn’t know if Adora was ready to share her personal feelings with others yet.

“I am in love with her, but I don’t want things to go back to the way they were. I want us to form a relationship that is equal, so I don’t have to feel guilty anymore, and she doesn’t have to feel like I’m trying to protect her,” she paused momentarily. “Hopefully that relationship also involves…kissing, and such.”

“…WHAT?” Adora suddenly remembered that Glimmer didn’t know about any of this.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about this. Sorry. I didn’t know how to deal with it yet, so only Bow knew about it. But now you know.” Adora bit her lip. “Yeah. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I feel like it’s possible that I’ve always had these kinds of feelings about Catra, but I didn’t understand them or acknowledge them. It was really hard to think about crushes and stuff in the Horde because we were mostly concerned with not getting killed, or beaten, or…” she trailed off.

“And that’s another thing that I’ve… never told you.” She took a deep breath and spoke slowly. “When we were in the Horde, Catra was always treated significantly worse than the other cadets. I was given preferential treatment over her because Shadow Weaver thought I had the most potential out of our group,” She took another breath. “Every time I’ve talked to Catra since I left, I tried to tell her that I was always protecting her. But I understand that, at least from her perspective, maybe that wasn’t true.”

Glimmer listened in a stunned silence. This was not what she was expecting to do today.

“And I also know that I can’t blame myself for Shadow Weaver’s actions,” Bow shot her a supportive thumbs-up. Adora coughed. “So, um…that’s sort of where I stand right now.”

Glimmer was beginning to process the magnitude of the situation. “Wait, wait, wait. How do you know you _love_ her? Maybe you just want her friendship back. You were best friends for your entire childhood. Maybe you just miss her.” Glimmer’s head spun at the idea of her best friend dating a maniacal cat girl who had tried to kill them all on multiple occasions.

“We still are best friends.” Adora adjusted the perfume bottle slightly. “I refuse to give up on that.”

“Okay, we know that. That’s why we’re going to try and get her to defect.” Glimmer picked up the perfume bottle, ignoring Adora’s protests. “How did you jump from missing her to being in love with her?”

Adora shifted nervously. “I think I might have always loved her. Like I said before.” She took back the perfume bottle and gazed at it affectionately. “She is the strongest person I’ve ever met. She’s an incredible fighter. She almost defeated She-Ra. And she has a good heart. Even though she’s with the Horde. And she’s smart, and funny, and pretty, and soft…” she trailed off. She rubbed the perfume bottle with her thumb.

“So? Bow is most of those things too.” Glimmer was trying her best to be supportive, but she had good reason to be hesitant. She trusted Adora’s judgement that Catra was still redeemable for the Rebellion, but that didn’t mean she wanted Catra slinking into Adora’s room in the middle of the night to do god knows what.

“But I don’t feel like this about Bow! No offense, Bow, you are perfect and I love you.”

Bow smiled. “None taken.”

“Glimmer, I just know, okay? Catra is the only person who understands what I went through at the Horde. She knows me better than I know myself. And besides, I am also…immensely attracted to her. Physically.”

Glimmer’s gaze drifted to the table and she absentmindedly read a few of the scribbled words on the scraps of paper taped to the colored strings. Following the papers on a bright red string, one read “GUILT,” another read, “GAY THOUGHTS,” and another read “GAY DREAMS.”

“Okay,” Glimmer sighed. “Okay. This is fine. We can deal with this.” She ran her hand through her hair. “Do you think Catra feels the same way about you?”

Adora suddenly realized that she had neglected to consider that in her very well-designed schematic.

* * *

Catra stalked back and forth behind Entrapta, who was excitedly assembling a new device out of First Ones’ tech.

“YES!” Catra jumped when Entrapta screeched loudly. She turned on her heel.

“What? Is it finished?”

“I’ve completed a basic wireless circuit!”

“…” Catra stared down at Entrapta, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a small lit lightbulb. “So you can power a lightbulb?”

“I can do much more than that. I am using the Black Garnet as a remote power source. With this technology I can use the Moonstone as a kind of wireless battery, which will drain power from Bright Moon without inflating the Black Garnet’s power. So the weather won’t go all whacko.”

“Okay, _now_ we’re getting somewhere.” Catra grinned. She knew taking Entrapta under her wing was a good idea. She was secretly starting to like her, and not just for her inventions. “How long do you need to build something that can suck all of the power out of the Moonstone?”

“Three days, tops.” Entrapta nibbled on the handle of her soldering pen.

“Then we attack in three days.”

* * *

A few days later, back at Castle Bright Moon, Operation Redeem Catra And Get Her To Go On A Date With Adora was in full swing.

Of course, only Glimmer and Bow knew about the second bit.

“Is this what people are supposed to do with their crushes?” Adora asked anxiously. They had been messing with Adora’s model battles again, working on a plan to physically kidnap Catra and bring her back to Bright Moon, where they would then commence trying to convince her to stay.

“Definitely not. Usually you just give them a little note that says ‘Do you like me? Yes or no.’” Bow said jokingly.

“I don’t think this will work. Catra needs to come to us. We can’t force her.” Glimmer pointed out. “If we do, she might just run right back to the Horde, or try to spy on us.”

“You’re right.” Adora took a sip of tea, which Bow had made them all, insisting it would help relieve their stress. “We need to make her understand that we need her more than the Horde does. And that we aren’t trying to help her. We want her to help _us_.”

Bow stroked his chin thoughtfully. “But how are we going to do that?”

“Maybe we could offer her a higher position in the Rebellion than what the Horde would give her?” Glimmer chimed in. “Hand of the queen? Or second in command to She-Ra?”

“That won’t work either. She’ll think we’re doing it out of pity.” Bow and Glimmer looked confused. “She’s made it very clear to me that she doesn’t want my pity or my protection. Giving her some made-up title to make her feel wanted is the epitome of pity.”

“You’re right,” Bow sighed. “But I don’t know how else we can show her that we need her.”

At that moment, the lights flickered a few times, before cutting out entirely.

Glimmer created a small light out of magic. “Um, what just happened?”

Adora tensed. “Something’s wrong. We need to check on the Moonstone. Come on!”

* * *

Outside, Queen Angella was already trying to support the Moonstone with her magic, but to no avail.

“Mom, what’s happening?” Glimmer ran to join her mother.

“It must be the Horde.” Adora clenched her fists.

“But how could it be the Horde? They’re not even here!” Glimmer raised her arms and focused her magic on the Moonstone.

“I don’t know how. But it has to be,” Adora drew her sword. “Prepare for an attack.”

* * *

Catra sat on top of a Horde tank, which was chugging along steadily through the rubble that was left of the Whispering Woods. She stretch her arms and legs, preparing for the fight that was to come.

With Entrapta back in the Fright Zone manually redirecting energy from the Moonstone into handmade battery packs, the stone and its power was being drained from Bright Moon. Queen Angella and her annoying kid would both be completely powerless within a few hours. And this time, Catra had a foolproof plan: she would separate She-Ra from the fight and steal the sword, rendering Adora and her magic useless.

Now was the perfect time to strike.

As they closed in on Bright Moon, Catra slunk to the back of the procession of tanks, hiding among them. She needed to catch Adora by surprise.

The front most tanks began firing, and Catra quickly spotted She-Ra pummeling the first few. After a few minutes, a tank managed to shoot her shield out of her hands and knock her back into the mostly-destroyed trees flanking the side of the castle. Catra leapt towards the area, moving quickly knowing the fallen trees could no longer provide any cover with their leaves.

She silently approached behind Adora, who was still recovering from the blow, and just as she regained her footing, Catra delivered a swift kick to her back and knocked her back down.

“You know, you should really look behind you every now and then.”

“Catra!” Adora quickly rolled over and leapt back up. She-Ra really did recover pretty quickly.

“Hey, Adora,” Catra bounced on the balls of her feet slightly, preparing to leap out of the way of Adora’s sword. “How’s Bright Moon?”

Adora’s expression distorted with anger, and she clenched her sword. “What did you do to the Moonstone?”

Catra chuckled. “Like I would tell you, and ruin my entire plan.”

Adora swung with her sword, and Catra dodged it nimbly.

“It doesn’t have to be like this, Catra,” Adora continued to jab with the sword, and Catra continued to step away at the last second.

“Yes, it _does_.” Catra delivered a quick blow to her stomach, and was momentarily surprised when it hit and Adora didn’t block it. Adora grunted and knocked Catra back a step with the hilt of her sword.

Catra did not stop there. She swiped at Adora’s feet, expecting her to have learned from the last time she used the move, but again she was surprised when Adora was knocked to the ground.

“What the hell’s up with you today?” Catra kneeled and held her knee on Adora’s chest to hold her down. “You never fight this badly. Not even without She-Ra.”

Adora let her head fall to the ground with a soft _thud_. She closed her eyes. “Catra, I can’t fight you anymore.”

Catra dug her knee harder into Adora’s chest. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“What I said. I’m not going to fight you anymore.” She pushed Catra’s knee off of her. “We both know my heart isn’t in it.”

“If this is some ploy to get me to join your little princess rebellion, it isn’t going to work.”

“It’s not a ploy,” Adora sat up. Now they were both sat awkwardly on the ground, surrounded by crushed tree branches and dead leaves.

Catra glanced over to the battlefield. It had only been a few minutes, but somehow while she was preoccupied with Adora she hadn’t noticed a few of the other princesses had shown up to fight off the Horde army.

“I’m serious,” Adora grabbed Catra’s face and turned her head back to face her. “I don’t want to hurt you anymore, Catra.”

Catra chuckled darkly. “Oh, that’s rich.” She clawed the ground, shredding an unlucky patch of leaves and grass.

“Catra, just listen to me. I know that leaving you behind at the Horde was wrong. And I know I was wrong to ignore what Shadow Weaver was doing to you—“

Catra’s claws dug into the cold earth.

“But I can’t change the past. The only thing I can do is take the opportunities I have now to make a better future for us. All of us.” She gazed over to the battlefield sadly, where a giant wave of seawater took out six tanks at once. “So that’s why I’m asking you again. Will you join the Rebellion?”

Catra wanted to scream. She wanted to slap Adora in her stupid face, and then throw her under a tank and let it run her over. She felt the weird feeling bubbling up in her chest again.

“Adora, I don’t want to join the fucking Rebellion! How many times do we have to go through this before you realize that it’s never going to happen?!”

Adora looked hurt. She sighed. “Fine. Then you don’t care if I do this.”

“Do what—“ And suddenly Catra was being pulled forward by her shirt, until her lips were less than an inch away from Adora’s. Catra could see nothing but the rich blue of Adora’s eyes, glossy with tears that refused to roll down her cheeks.

Catra’s stomach flipped, and after a split instant of shock, a thought came screaming into Catra’s mind:

_She knew._

_She knew the entire time._

As quickly as Adora pulled her in, Catra shoved her away. She pulled her hand back and slapped Adora right in the face, keeping her hand open so as to not break the skin, but adding plenty of force to deliver serious pain.

“How dare you _—_ How _dare_ you?!” Catra stumbled to her feet. “That was fucking low, Adora. Even for you.”

She quickly whipped around to the sight of the Horde army beginning to retreat. Of course.

Adora was still sat on the ground, stunned. Catra decided she wasn’t worth dealing with anymore.

“You’ll regret this, Adora.”

* * *

Several shredded pillows later, Catra lay in the destroyed pile of fabric that was her bed. Her eyes stung from crying. The fact that she had cried for so long made her feel even more pathetic.

Adora had known about her crush the entire time. And furthermore, she knew she could use it against her strategically to get her to abandon the Horde.

Even after all this time, Catra was still completely powerless to Adora.

Catra didn’t know if she was surprised Adora would so cruelly use her feelings against her. She had always been just a toy to Adora; someone she only kept around to play with. She knew Adora never seriously considered her as an equal, especially because that was the rhetoric that Shadow Weaver had instilled in them their entire lives.

Still, she had thought that by becoming her enemy Adora would’ve at least feared her, even if she didn’t respect her.

Catra rolled over and stared at the ceiling. She wondered if anyone would ever take her seriously. If anyone would ever treat her like a normal person and not a toy. If anyone would ever actually care about how she felt for once.

She heard a small voice from the door.

“…Catra?” Scorpia quietly stepped in.

Catra sighed. “Not now, Scorpia.”

Scorpia slowly approached her anyways.

“Do you…wanna talk about what happened?”

Catra rolled over. “No.”

“Okay.” Catra felt Scorpia sit on the edge of the bed. A minute or two of silence fell over them.

“She tried to kiss me.”

“She-Ra?” Scorpia sounded shocked. Catra rolled back over to face her.

“Yeah. Adora,” she gulped. “She tried to kiss me. To get me to join the Rebellion.”

“Oh…” Scorpia was obviously still confused.

“I always liked her, secretly,” Catra fiddled with some bits of shredded fabric. “But she never acted like she liked me the same way. And when she left, I knew she really didn’t like me. I thought she would never know how I felt, and we would just go on being friends, or enemies now, or whatever.”

She sighed. “But I guess she knew about it the entire time? So she used those emotions in a way she knew would affect me, and she tried to kiss me.”

Scorpia placed a clawed hand on her shoulder. “Catra, that’s horrible.”

“Yeah, whatever. I’m used to horrible shit happening to me at this point.”

“No, really. You didn’t deserve to be treated like that.” Scorpia lifted Catra into an upright position. “Friends don’t do that to each other.”

Catra covered her face with her hands. “It’s like, just when I think I can’t possibly be any more humiliated, Adora finds a way every fucking time.”

“We are _so_ going to get back at her. Next time we attack, I’ll go after her myself!” Scorpia beamed enthusiastically.

“Thanks, Scorpia,” Catra stood and shook the fabric bits off of her clothes. “But I’m going to take care of She-Ra myself.”

Once again, Catra left the Fright Zone and headed for the First Ones’ castle in the Whispering Woods. This time, however, she had a clear plan in mind of what she would do when she got there.

She was going to kill Adora.

* * *

Adora was back in the training room, punching hologram after hologram. She kept getting more irritated every time she vanquished one, because her hand would swing through them instead of giving her the satisfying impact of punching a real person.

When a hologram managed to knock her down, she gave up in anger. “Errgh! End simulation!”

She sat on the ground, panting, and pulled her knees to her chest. She screwed up big time.

She was frustrated during the fight with Catra. She had thought this might be her last chance to explain to her how she really felt about her. But like almost every conversation she had with Catra, she fumbled around like an idiot and made Catra feel even worse than she already did.

She groaned. Catra probably thought she was a total jackass, and a creep, and an idiot, and…

She stopped herself. That train of thought was going nowhere. She needed to figure out what to do next.

Before she could even begin, though, she felt a searing pain rip down her back, a pain that she had felt multiple times in the past few months.

Catra’s claws.

Adora cried out and whipped around, scrambling for her sword. She wasn’t ready to fight Catra again, not after the way they left before.

When she found her sword and stood, Catra was nowhere to be found. She could hear her snickering laughter, but it sounded like it was coming from everywhere all at once. She looked around frantically. “Where are you? Come out and face me!”

“Fine.”

Catra suddenly landed nimbly in front of Adora, grinning wickedly.

“Catra, I—“ Adora was cut off by a swift punch to the jaw.

 _So that’s how this is going to be,_ Adora thought bitterly. If Catra wanted to fight, all she could do was fight back.

And so they fought. It was an angry, dirty fight. Catra scratched Adora so badly that she knew most of her torso must have been covered in cuts, and her clothes were ripped in several places. Catra had taken a few hard blows, too, and was starting to stumble when she moved.

“Catra, _stop_!” Adora shouted as she blocked a kick. Tears were streaming down Catra’s face. Adora kicked her in the chest, hard, and knocked her down.

Catra cried out in pain. Adora needed to end this.

“Stop, Catra. I told you I’m not doing this anymore.” Adora decided to make a really big, really stupid decision.

That seemed to be the only thing she was good at these days.

Adora dropped her sword on the floor in front of Catra.

“Take it.”

Catra looked up in shock. “What?”

“Take my sword.” She kneeled next to Catra. “I know there’s nothing I can do to change the past, or to make you understand how much I care about you.” She gently pushed the sword towards Catra. “So I’m giving you this. To prove that I trust you.”

“That’s a dumb fucking thing to do.”

“I know,” Adora sat down fully, her body aching from the fight. She watched Catra pick up the sword and examine it. “But I’m dumb enough to do it.”

“What if I give this to Hordak? And get you and all your friends killed?” Catra’s expression was unreadable.

“I trust you won’t. That’s not what you did the last time you had it.” Adora lay down fully. “I would rather lose She-Ra than use her to hurt you. I’m done being the one with all the power. It’s your turn now.”

Catra clutched the sword. “How long have you known?”

“Known what?”

“Adora, I can’t keep playing these mind games with you.” Adora turned to look at Catra. Even after getting the crap beat out of her, she was still beautiful.

“It’s not a game. It’s never been a game to me.” She sat back up, which took considerable effort with her wounds. “Listen, Catra. I’m not the person the Horde tried to make me be. And you don’t have to be that person either. I’m not just Shadow Weaver’s favorite kid anymore.”

Catra traced her fingers along the sword.

“And you’re not the runt of the litter.” She knew Catra hated when she used cat puns on her, so she decided to keep talking quickly. “Everything is so different now, and I know most of it has been in my favor and not yours, but I…I still love you, Catra.”

“No, you don’t,” Catra was crying again. “You don’t.”

“I do!” Adora grabbed Catra’s wrist. “I fucking care about you! Even if you don’t care about me. Even if you don’t love me back.”

“Adora, do you not know that I— that I always—?” Catra stopped herself.

“That you always what?” Catra couldn’t meet Adora’s gaze.

Catra buried her face in her arm. “Why did you try to kiss me?”

“Because you said you would never join the Rebellion. I thought it was my last chance.”

“Your last chance?” Catra raised her head slightly, and Adora saw her red, puffy eyes.

“My last chance to tell you how I feel.” Adora laced her fingers with Catra’s. “And it’s not about She-Ra, or the Rebellion, or the Horde, or anything else. It’s just about us. It’s about you. I love you.”

“Why?” Catra groaned.

“Because you’re awesome! You’re so strong, and smart, and you know how to press all my buttons, and you’ve always been there for me even when I wasn’t there for you. And you’re beautiful, and funny, and dedicated, and have fifty times the motivation I ever had. And I’m obsessed with you.”

“Oh.” Catra mumbled quietly.

“So…that’s why I gave you the sword.” Adora took a deep breath. “You don’t have to respond right now. I know this is a lot. You can just take the sword and leave if you want.”

Catra quietly stood, sword in hand.

“Thank you, Adora.”

* * *

“YOU GAVE CATRA THE SWORD?!”

“YOU TOLD ME TO SHOW HER I CARE ABOUT HER—“

* * *

Catra was getting tired of hiding in the rubble of the Whispering Woods, so she figured it would be a good time to decide what to do next.

So Adora didn’t know that Catra loved her. And Adora loved her anyways.

Or something. Catra was still processing everything.

She looked at the sword. She knew if she took this back to the Horde, Hordak would forgive her for losing the battle. He would finally understand that Catra was a formidable opponent of She-Ra and the Rebellion. He might even respect her.

But if she returned without the sword, he would surely punish her. Probably worse than Shadow Weaver ever had.

So her choices were that she could steal the sword and betray Adora, or she could leave the Horde forever.

Adora was the only thing that had made her want to stay in the Horde. Before, it was because if she left the Horde, she’d be leaving Adora, so she stayed. Now, she stayed because she felt betrayed by Adora. It was always Adora.

Adora’s humility had shocked her. She seemed genuinely sorry. Not in the way that she had been before. This clearly wasn’t Adora trying to rid herself of her childhood guilt. It was different.

Adora gave her the sword so that Catra would have power over her, knowing that Catra would probably give it to Hordak. It was just like Adora to do something so reckless. Catra smiled.

 _Adora’s never going to make it out there without me,_ Catra thought.

She knew what she needed to do.

* * *

Bow was sleeping soundly, dreaming of flying and shooting arrows at magical targets made of clouds, when a figure came crashing through his window and fell on top of him.

“Adora, I—“

Bow screamed.

“You’re not Adora.”

Bow pushed the girl off of him and frantically reached for the lamp beside his bed. He screamed again when he realized a muscular, disheveled cat girl was standing on his bed.

“C-C-Catra!!”

“Where is Adora’s room?”

Bow fell out of bed, scrambling to get his bow and arrow.

“I’m not going to attack you. I’m returning her sword. Just tell me where—“ He shot an arrow, and Catra stepped out of its path. “—she is.”

Bow lowered his weapon. “She’s… downstairs. Right below this room.”

“Thanks.” Catra climbed back out the window.

Bow grabbed more arrows and ran downstairs to wait outside Adora’s room in case things turned sour.

* * *

Catra cursed under her breath as she climbed down to Adora’s window.

Kicking the window open with ease, she hopped into the room, this time ready to be potentially attacked by one of Adora’s many friends who apparently all slept in the same wing of the castle.

“Catra?” Adora was awake, sitting in her bed with an open book in her hand.

“Adora.”

They stared at each other for a few moments, and Adora laughed nervously.“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t come.”

“Well, I’m here.” Catra crawled forward so that she was sitting in Adora’s lap, separated only by her soft blankets.

“Does that mean you…?”

“I’ve been in love with you for as long as I can remember,” Catra blurted.

_Well, there’s no going back now._

“And I never said anything because I thought you didn’t care about me. And when you left I thought you _really_ didn’t like me. And when you tried to kiss me I freaked out because I thought you knew how I felt and were toying with my feelings just like Shadow Weaver would.”

“Catra, I would _never—“_

“I know.” Catra handed Adora the sword. “I know. So I came back to—“

Adora yanked Catra by the shirt and pressed their lips together. Adora tossed her book onto the floor and Catra laced her hands around Adora’s waist. Adora’s fingers found her way into Catra’s hair, pulling on it gently. Catra sighed and pulled Adora closer. When they parted, she rested her head on Adora’s shoulder while she played with her hair.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

* * *

Epilogue

Catra was worried that it would take Bow, Glimmer, and the rest of the Rebellion a while to accept that Catra wanted to join them. However, they were actually very welcoming, especially when she told them Entrapta was alive and well.

Their first order of business was to find Scorpia and Entrapta and bring them to the side of the Rebellion. In a meeting with the princesses and Queen Angella, Catra explained that Scorpia and Entrapta could act as spies, with Entrapta hacking the Horde’s technology while Scorpia would monitor Hordak’s battle plans. Catra was pleasantly surprised to find that the princesses were actually listening to her, and taking her seriously as an ally. The Rebellion truly was the complete opposite of the Horde.

Things weren’t perfect. There were a lot of issues that she and Adora were still working through together, and a lot of dark memories that neither of them were ready to face just yet. But Catra knew that they could, and would, get through it together.

One night, as she lay beside Adora in their bed (because Catra had insisted they should share one, and Adora sheepishly agreed), tracing shapes along Adora’s skin, a revolutionary thought crossed her mind:

_The Horde doesn’t stand a chance._

**Author's Note:**

> (The title is from the song 'Hurts Like Hell' by Madison Beer, because it was giving me gay Catra vibes)
> 
> I haven't written fanfiction since I was like 12 so this probably sucks, sorry. Also I realized after writing this that Bow most likely doesn't live at the castle but like, oh well. Also, if you caught the tiny Good Place reference in this fic, you're awesome and I love you.
> 
> If people like this I might write a sequel involving the princess Catra theory because I 1000% believe in it. 
> 
> Okay thanks bye.♥


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